One of the biggest wars which TRANSFORMED how we use our appliances in our home was not the world war! But the war of the CURRENTS!
It was essentially a war of a genius with a businessman!
The War of the Currents was a fierce late-1880s commercial and technological battle over which electrical transmission system would power the world:
Thomas Edison’s (the businessman!) Direct Current (DC) or Nikola Tesla (the genius!) and George Westinghouse’s Alternating Current (AC)!
DC was good but ineffective for long distances!
In DC, the electricity flows continuously in one direction (like a battery).
Because Edison’s DC systems could not easily step voltage up or down, power had to be transmitted at the same low voltage used by light bulbs. Due to high resistance losses (P = I²R) over long distances, DC could only travel about one mile before fading, requiring dense networks of local power plants.
This was handled effectively by Alternating Current or AC in which the electricity constantly reverses direction (typically 50 or 60 times per second).
Using transformers developed by William Stanley Jr. and Westinghouse, AC could be stepped up to extreme high voltages for transmission with negligible power loss, then stepped back down to safe voltages at the home!
But Edison was a relentless businessman and even though he knew the other system was better he could not bear to lose!
Which is when he started the Dirty Campaign!
Realizing AC was technologically superior for wide-scale grids, Edison launched a ruthless public relations smear campaign to paint AC as incredibly dangerous!
He went so far to even organise Public Executions!
Edison’s team publicly electrocuted stray dogs, cattle, and even an elephant named Topsy using AC power to stoke public fear!
He did not stop at animals, in fact he went up to humans or inhumans as you see them!
The dreaded Electric Chair!
To forever link AC with death in the public mind, Edison secretly funded the development of the world’s first electric chair using a Westinghouse AC generator!
For all these dancing around and antics though, AC won the battle in the end and how!
Despite the propaganda, economics and physics ultimately triumphed!
The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair; Westinghouse underbid Edison (who had just been merged into General Electric) to light the exposition!
Tesla’s safe, brilliant AC system flawlessly illuminated the fair, proving its viability to millions!
Then came the Niagara Falls Power Project in 1895!
Westinghouse was chosen to build the first major hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls.
The plant successfully sent massive amounts of AC electricity all the way to Buffalo, NY (26 miles away), effectively ending the war and cementing AC as the global standard for long-distance power grids!
Even now the war remains though!
While AC runs our master grid and wall outlets, the war never truly finished.
Today, our electronic devices (computers, smartphones, and LED bulbs) run internally on DC, relying on converters to transform power from the wall!
In fact all charges of the phones effectively convert the AC from the power source to DC!
Also, High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) lines are now used to transmit electricity efficiently over underwater links and thousands of miles of open land!
But this has happened only by collaboration!
Many times I have always wondered why could the two join together and make the advantages of both reach the common public sooner!
The ego of the average MAN is the greatest obstacle for development!
Then again if you are as talented as
Srinivasan Rangarajan then you can bloat!
You may know him as Vaali…
Shubh ratri…
